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Tuesday, 6 June 2017

TOP SWAZI POLITICIANS’ ‘PHONES BUGGED’

Some senior politicians in
Swaziland think their phones are being tapped, a local newspaper has reported. One
also thinks his car might be bugged.

The Sunday Observer reported (4 June 2017) that it contacted a number
of politicians and found some suspected phones were tapped but they had no
proof.

The newspaper reported, ‘House
of Assembly Speaker Themba Msibi, when interviewed about the possibility of
hearing devices and phones being tapped, said, “I too have concerns as at times
calls sound hollow, making one suspect that a third party could be listening
in.”’

Minister of Economic
Planning Prince Hlangusemphi said he had heard rumours with nothing official
and concrete to substantiate them.

The newspaper reported, ‘Minister
of Natural Resources Jabulile Mashwama said rumours of bugging have been around
since time immemorial.’

Ntondozi MP Peter Ngwenya told the House of Assembly at
the time that MPs lived in fear because there was constant police presence, in
particular from officers in the Intelligence Unit.

The Times
of Swaziland newspaper reported at
the time that at the same sitting of the House Lobamba MP Majahodvwa Khumalo
said his cellphone had been bugged ever since he started being ‘vocal against
some people’.

The House was told that MPs were attending a workshop
on the Elections Expenses Bill when they discovered a plain-clothed police
officer taking notes of the MPs’ comments. He was ejected from the
meeting.

The Times
reported that Ngwenya said as MPs they were now afraid to do anything because
there was too much police presence in their midst. ‘We know of the police who
ensure our safety and they are normally in uniform, we do not know what is
happening now,’ he said.

It is legal in certain
circumstances to tap phones in Swaziland where King Mswati III rules as
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. The Suppression of
Terrorism Act gives police the right to listen in on people’s conversations if
they have the permission of the Attorney General.